


Dream

by Coolez



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Childhood Friends, F/F, Pre-college, YouChika, chikayou
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-14
Updated: 2017-03-14
Packaged: 2018-10-04 23:59:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10292861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coolez/pseuds/Coolez
Summary: Those short days before college…





	

**Author's Note:**

> This runs in parallel with my YohaRiko work, “Serenade”, but either can be understood even if the other wasn’t read!  
> The parts in italics are written in You’s point of view, mostly. The rest are in third-person.

_High school graduation -_  
Partings like this doesn’t specifically have to be sad.  
It could be the start of a brand new dream.  
I know, because that was how mine went.

“I guess we’ll see again…”  
“Tomorrow!”

_That was the start of my dream._

“So you’re going to a sports college, You-chan?” Chika asked, her red-eyes sparkling.  The ashen turned to her childhood friend a grin, and nodded.

“Yeah! The one in Tokyo. I can’t believe I made it!” she sang, happy.  “That’s great.” The orange laughed along.

It has been like this, bliss, for the past week, past month, ever since they graduated. Sure enough, with no school to go to anymore, and club meetings to attend, perhaps, they’d put the time to good use – and by good use, they meant, leaning back-to-back in turns at each other’s houses, chatting and playing the days away as they should. The two, together, alone, while either their younger friends continue the legacy at Uranohoshi High School, or their older ones already all over the country, even abroad, furthering their studies. Even Riko, who was their year, had firsthand moved back to Tokyo for college.

Perhaps they’d meet once in a while, with their precious little juniors or the older trio in for a visit, but for the much time they have to themselves, they kept to themselves, enjoying the other’s company had they had since before even thinking about high school.

_Yes, that was, by stretch, the best time of my life, spending them with her. It was a new dream, a familiar one, yet I brand it new. I was happy, and so was she, and at that moment I wished I would never have to wake up from it.  
If only._

“What about you, Chika-chan?” You asked, after a long day, her head resting on the younger’s shoulder. Chika looked up at the ceiling of her room, the lights dim but raining down, pouring into her eyes as she hummed unsure.

“I don’t know,” after a few seconds pause she answered, closing her eyes. “I did apply to some colleges here and there, but… maybe I’m not going to college at all.” She turned and looked at You, her eyes kind, but turning a dusty grey.

You returned the look, her own orbs losing sparkle.

_It was as if that point of the dream briefly turned into a nightmare, yet I couldn’t find myself to wake up from it – I can’t, because this wasn’t a dream after all.  
If only._

A week remains before she would inevitably move away from the town she had called home for the past two decades of her life – the only town she knew for the entire length of time she’d lived.  
A week remains before she would inevitably move away from her, whom she’d called a friend for as long as she remembers remembering.

_A week remains._  
A week remains.

The duo sat under the warmth of the kotatsu at Chika’s house, side-by-side, the younger’s head leaned onto the slightly older. And the older, though slouched down and imbalanced, her hands gently ripped apart the orange skin of the mandarin she held within her palms, slowly, and pulled out piece-by-piece, pushing it towards the younger’s lips, that, though lazed with a little hesitation, soon gave up to the scent of ever favourite food.

It was a peaceful day for the both – perhaps lack of the usual energy they’d normally have throughout, the energetic cheerfulness that each would bring about just with their presence. Today, the both of them was none of that, none of that at all. Today, the two would just enjoy silence shoulder to shoulder, next to each other. Today, they are an old, happily married couple, just blissfully enjoying the fact that they were next to one another –

Except they’re not.  
_We’re not._

“Chika-chan.” You called softly as she popped a freshly peeled piece into her mouth.   
No response.

“Chika-chan.” She called out again, this time, navigating a piece of cold mikan to the other’s closed lips. Chika flinched at the sensation, but a second later, accepted the citrus and sat up.

“What’s wrong?” in unison, they’d ask. And because of that, they’d stare at each other in the eyes, long, before eventually falling to the opposite sides with a laugh. The two each held to their stomach, a burst of giggles slowly ensued, their lips curved up and slightly gapped. Audible, at that very moment, was nothing but pure joy.  
Nothing’s wrong, right?  
_If only._

And as the laughter died, the two awoke in silence, sighing.

“Chika-chan,” You inched, “Mikan.”

The red-eye opened her mouth wide, letting the piece in. She chewed, swallowed, and ended with a smile. Delicious – is what her face said.

“Chika-chan.” Again, as like the many times before, You called. Chika licked her lips, savoring every last drop of the mandarin that she had been fed, and looked over to her childhood friend.

“You-chan.”  
“Chika-chan.”  
“You-chan~”  
“ _Chika-chan.”_

And that’s when Chika stepped into silence, a few moments, recollecting.

“I was just thinking,” She leaned in again, returning herself to You’s shoulder, resting. With her left, she took You’s hand which was at the in the middle of peeling a new mandarin piece. Lazily, she brought it to her lips, to her mouth, and bit half of it. “How great it was, having you peel mikan for me every day.”

You brought the half-eaten piece to herself, eyes locked onto it. _How great it was, being able to peel mikan for you every day,_ she thought. She brought the piece closer, and closer, before eventually popping the rest into her mouth, biting into it. _Sweet –_ it was, very. Yet somehow, the back of her tongue was something else; bitter.

“I’ll still peel it for you every day, if you want me to.” You chewed on the fruit effortlessly in sludge, until too soon it was just tasteless mush in her mouth. Then, unwillingly, she swallowed what remained, the now-overly warm carcass of the piece of mandarin sliding down her throat coarse.

“You can’t.”

_I nearly choked._

There it was, the cutting point. The fragile glass that sheltered this dreamland, that has been doing its utter best to hold this fantasy together, shattered.

“Why can’t I?”  
“You-chan.”

And that’s when it kicks in – reality. She knew it was going to come, heck, she’s been expecting it ever since she got that confirmation letter from the college. Yet for the past few weeks they’d had together, she locked them away, away, not a single care for the world.  
Until now.

“Can’t I just stay by your side every day and peel mikan for you, just like now?”  
“You-chan.”  
“I want to. I want to stay with you forever, _forever,_ Chika-chan.”  
“You-chan.”  
“I don’t want to go.”  
“ _You-chan.”_

Then her words stopped, her tongue clicked to a halt. She threw herself onto her childhood friend, sobbing, and while she could no longer see the other’s face, she knew she was doing the same as well.   
And they did that for the rest of the day, presumably, because even You herself couldn’t tell what happened afterwards.

_Who stopped crying first? I don’t remember. All I could’ve thought of at that very moment was how I didn’t want to let go, and I wanted to hold on.  
But I knew Chika-chan wouldn’t have wanted that._

“Have you gotten everything, You-chan?”

The sound of the morning train bustled through their ears. Stood just shy from the piercing sunlight was our two, very close, very far, childhood friends. The orange poked at the stacked pile of bags before her, making sure nothing’s lost or forgotten, the silver just stood and smiled, perhaps sighing slightly.

And as the train arrives and halted, the doors sprung open – it was time.  
_See you soon,_ she wanted to say, but ultimately chose not to.

She didn’t have to.

_Partings like this doesn’t specifically have to be sad._  
It could be the start of a brand new dream.  
I know, because that’s how mine went.

“I’ll be coming in a month! Don’t have too much fun without me!”

_I guess this dream is going to last a little longer -  
Since we’ll definitely see each other again._


End file.
